"First you get into the stadium, then you look for the seat"

[Bapopik at AOL.COM]

"FIRST YOU GET INTO THE STADIUM, THEN YOU LOOK FOR THE SEAT"

>From Saturday's New York Post, 18 December 2004, pg. 18:

http://www.nypost.com/postopinion/editorial/36648.htm
70 YEARS FOR THE CITY

December 18, 2004 -- Edith Spivack, a career civil servant on the New York City payroll, was feted this week on her retirement. There's nothing remarkable about that, of course — save for the fact that the 94-year-old Mrs. Spivack is ending a career as a city lawyer that spanned 70 years.
That's right — Edith Spivack has been working longer than most people have been alive. She joined the city Corporation Counsel's office in 1934, the year Fiorello LaGuardia became mayor. Officials believe she's the longest-serving municipal employee in the city's history.

That would be remarkable enough. But Spivack's entire story is an inspiration.

One of only four women graduates of Columbia Law School in 1932, she couldn't get a job because law firms wouldn't hire women — and the one that finally took her on soon fired her after she had the temerity to get married.

Hired by the city, she had to work six months as an unsalaried "volunteer" in order to prove her worth — and when she finally went on salary, it was for only half the pay that a man in the same job was getting.

But as Spivack once said, "First you get into the stadium — then you look for the seat."

After a stint handling workmen's compensation, Spivack found her seat in the tax division.

In the 1970s, she won $93 million for the cash-strapped city in delinquent taxes and interest from the bankrupt Penn Central Railroad; she also negotiated loans that kept the city out of bankruptcy during the same period and — no mean feat — forced foreign consulates to pay their water bills.

She left full-time work only a decade ago, but came into the office each week for the agency's executive staff advisory meeting. Now she's decided it's finally time to start taking it easy — and why not?

Over seven decades, Edith Spivack has earned not only New Yorkers' appreciation — but their admiration, as well.
...

I like this one a lot. I've heard "first, get your foot in the door," but I like this one better. It doesn't have much circulation, but then, Edith Spivack is no Paris Hilton.

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COMPLETELY OFF TOPIC:

WHERE DID BARRY POPIK EAT?--Anh, 363 Third Avenue at about 26th Street. It was pretty good for Vietnamese cuisine. The restaurant is about two years old. Vietnamese spring rolls for $6 are fine.

DOES BARRY POPIK HAVE PHONE SERVICE?: No. The MCI repair guy never showed up on Friday. I called again. I was told to go into the box...--then the doorman overheard that and said this is an apartment building, tell MCI that you're not going to hunt around looking for some f--g box! So maybe I'll have phone/internet service on Monday. If MCI is so kind as to send someone to New York City.